Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Do these two mountain pictures seem similar? Well, China wants you to think so, and they want you to visit it.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

"Tourism chiefs in central China have moved to cash in on the smash-hit popularity of James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar by renaming a peak the "Hallelujah Mountain" after the floating rocks in the film.

A 1,074-metre tall (3,523ft) column of rock in the Wulingyuan Scenic Zone in Hunan Province previously known as the Southern Sky Column was re-christened in a special ceremony this week involving hundreds of local people dressed in the region's ethnic Tujia costumes.

The park, a World Natural Heritage site, formed part of the inspiration for the floating mountains in the film, which this week officially become China's most popular film, grossing more than $100m at the box office."

I can definitely see the similarities. And James Cameron's designers have acknowledge the Chinese mountains as part of the inspiration for the floating mountains in the movie.